Upside Down Fresh Fig Cake

We have had a great fig harvest his year. Other han enjoying the figs straight off the tree, I have been using them in various desserts. I made a fig crostata (recipe on the blog), fig icecream, fig danish braid.  Then I thought an upside down cake would be delightful. The result of the experiment was delicious!! 

Ingredients 

10 ripe fresh figs, cut into eighths or small pieces

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp sugar

1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup milk

Method

Butter a baking pan and cover the base with parchment paper.

Preheat the often to 350F.

In a saucepan, heat the butter. Once it melts, add the figs and sugar and give it a stir. Cover with a lid and let it cook for a couple of mins and then stir again. Cook covered for 5-10 mins, stirring frequently, till the figs release their juices and soften and start to caramelize.

Pour this into the baking pan and spread in a layer on the parchment paper.

Sift or whisk the flour, salt and baking powder so they are mixed well and the baking powder is evenly distributed.

Whisk together the butter and sugar. Once the mixture stars looking fluffy like icing, add one egg at a time and mix these in. Then, add the vanilla essence. Next fold one third of the flour into the batter, followed by half the milk. Alternate between the flour and milk incorporated into the batter using the folding motion.

This is a thick batter. Now pour or scoop this over the fig layer. Use a flat spatula to spread it out. Then bang the pan on the counter a couple of times to remove any large air bubbles. 

Bake for about 30 mins (check at 20 mins). Use  a toothpick or knife to check for doneness. Pierce the cake in the center. If the knife/toothpick is clean, the cake is done. 

Let the cake cool for a few mins in the pan and then invert it onto cooling rack. Peel off the parchment paper.  The cake doesn't need to be inverted again as the fig layer comes on top of the cake. Cut after the cake cools.

Tips

Let the figs caramelize. When you start cooking them it may seem that there isn't much moisture of they are not getting sweet, so cook with the lid on and let them stew in their juices. Figs become very sweet once they release their sugar which converts into a delicious syrup. Do not add more sugar unless you are using figs which are under ripe.
If you do not have fresh figs, you can use dried figs too. Soak them for a few hours to rehydrate. Once they are plump cut them into small pieces and follow the recipe. 

Peach Upside Down Cake

It has been a long time since my last blog update. I am hoping that I will be able to update the blog more frequently now. Hope you will all enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoyed making it.
Summer is a wonderful season with respect to all the varieties of fruits that the grocery stored are inundated with. Boxes are brimful with peaches and I relish this delicious and juicy fruits.  I love including these as toppings on waffles or making peach preserve. I wanted to bake a cake recently and while staring at my fridge contents, I thought why not make a peach cake.

I scoured various sites on the internet and the multiple cooking books I have, including reviewing my pineapple upside down cake recipe. It took me about four days to finally decide on a recipe I wanted to follow. It was for an apple upside down cake from Cook's Illustrated that I modified to make the delicious and very spongy and soft peach upside down cake.

Ingredients
For the upside down topping
5 ripe peaches, cut into slices about 1/2 inch in thickness
3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the cake
1 cup all purpose flour/maida
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Grease a baking pan and then line it with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and dust it with flour. Preheat the oven to 350F.

For the topping
Melt butter in a pan and then half of the peach slices to it. Cook these in the butter till they start to soften and then add the rest of the peach slices, sugar and lemon juice and stir till the sugar dissolves and the peach slices are coated in the sugar. These will be quite a bit of syrup that gets created as the peach releases juices. Transfer these to the cake pan and arrange them to form a layer.

To make the cake batter
Whisk or sieve the dry ingredients including the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk the sugar, brown sugar and eggs till it is well whipped and the eggs lighten a little in color. Then whisk in the melted butter slowly till it is complete incorporated. Add the sour cream and vanilla essence till completely combined. Fold flour into this mixture till combined and then pour this batter over the layer of peaches in the baking tin. This is a thick batter and is better to spoon it and spread it with the back of the spoon as your layer it over the peaches.

Bake it in the pre-heated oven for about 30-40 mins, till the cake is completely cooked. To test if the cake is cooked, insert a knife or toothpick into the center of the cake and remove it. If it comes out clean, it is cooked.

Place the tin on a cooling rack and let it cool till you can easily touch it. Then run a knife around the edge of the pan, if the cake has not completely come away from the sides, to loosen it. Invert the pan over a baking rack and then remove the pan. If you want, you can let the excess syrup drip off at this stage. I didn't do this. I then inverted it back onto a another baking rack and let it cool completely. This let the excess syrup get absorbed into the cake making it very  moist. Transfer to a platter and serve after it cools down completely.

Tips
To melt the butter, cut it into cubes, put it in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it in 20 second intervals till butter is almost melted and then stir to melt completely in the residual heat. Else, it can be melted in a small saucepan on the stove top. Sour cream can be substituted with full fat yogurt or green yogurt. I used an 11 inch tin with 2 inch sides and you can see that the cake layer turned out thin. It would be a thicker cake if a 9 inch pan is used. Make sure that it is deep enough to hold the topping as well as the cake with at least 2 inch sides.